Claudette Colbert

This is a first rate job of colorization of a black and white film still. The star in the picture is Claudette Colbert, best recalled today for her role in the Frank Capra film, "It Happened One Night" with Clark Gable, that netted all three of them (and the picture) Oscars in 1934. This is from a 1935 or 1936 movie called "Maid of Salem", which is set in Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony c. 1692. You can probably guess the story - especially as the director of the film placed in this shot a wizened looking broom (here it's age highlighted by it's green coloring) in the background in back of Ms Colbert, wearing a red gown. Red of course, in the location notorious for Mr. Hawthorn's stories, suggests his "The Scarlet Letter" wherein Hester Prynne is humiliated by her neighbors for her adultery and pregnancy with an unknown man, and wears a red letter - here Ms Colbert wear red, although her face suggests a quiet and meek personality. She is suspected of witchcraft, due to the malicious statements of a young girl who claims she was with a male figure in black on a dark but misty night in the woods. She was - she was with Fred MacMurray, who had to leave without being seen for his own reasons. So she stands accused and will stand trial and face death as a result. The picture therefore puts the informed viewer into the mood of this forgotten film (the later play "The Crucible" and the film version with Daniel Day-Lewis, gives the story it's best presentation). Even though it is not up to the Miller play or the film, "Maid of Salem" was a well done view of the insanity of mobs due to unreasoning fear, and the expression on Ms Colbert's face in this colorized picture makes one see how dreadful such moments of mass insanity are to the most innocent caught up by them.